Vacation From Life
by Fleur de L'ame
Summary: This takes place five years after Harry and Draco's last year at Hogwarts. There has been the biggest war in wizarding history, Harry and Draco were involved. This included some flashbacks and slash.
1. Draco's Dreams

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this story belong to J.K. Rowling I am not trying to take her thunder, however most of the situations are mine. If there are any characters you don't recognize they're mine. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.

Vacation From Life

**Chapter One ~ Draco's Dreams**

"Harry, Harry are you awake?" asked Draco Malfoy hesitantly. There was no answer. Draco needed to talk but he could wait. He wrapped his pale hands around Harry Potter's slim waist. He moved as close as he could, he never wanted to let go, Harry was the only thing he had left. He didn't want to lose the only person left in the world that he loved.

As Draco drifted off to sleep he dreamed of his life before the war. He had been in school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team and he was second in the sixth year, under Hermione Granger. His father, Lucius had found him a job at the Ministry of Magic, as assistant to Walden Macnair. Macnair was an executioner for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures for the Ministry.

This dream was no different from all the others that Draco had been having. _It was Christmas break; Draco was going home to spend it with his relatives, the Delacours. He got on the number 2511 train at the Hogsmede station to a station ten miles from Malfoy Manor. He had to ride in a carriage for a half an hour to get up to the house. As he got out he looked at the Manor, the black stone shone in the bright sunlight and the windows reflected the light on the ivy-covered fence that surrounded the Manor. He walked up to the iron gate; the security measures his father had taken to make the Manor muggle-proof were immaculate. The gate contained three different locks. The first involved a password that only members of the Malfoy family knew. The second was a blood sample; all of the Malfoys had veela blood running through their veins. The final lock was only a body scan. The gat had an inventory of the birthmarks on everyone in the Malfoy family. Draco's was on his lower back; it was a pigmented area in the shape of a snake._

_"It fits doesn't it?" Draco thought to himself. "One of the last remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin, and my birthmark is a snake." The inner gate swung open and admitted him onto the grounds. You couldn't have known from the outside, through the fence, but the grounds were beautiful. This was Draco's favorite place on the property, not the house, not the dungeons, not the stables, but the garden. The garden was full of deadly flowers and Draco spent most of his time there. It was the solitude that enticed him. Neither Lucius nor Narcissa went there. Lucius spent most of his time in the dungeons or out on errands for the Dark Lord. Narcissa was confined to the house by Lucius and only went out with his when he wanted._

_Draco decided to visit the stables before entering the house and confronting his father. In the stable were the family's prized thoroughbreds and two thestrals that Lucius had smuggled into England after one of his "meetings" with the Ministry. Draco had been riding since he was seven years old and now was an exceptional rider. There were four horses in the stable, three were family horses and one was for guests. Draco walked down the aisle to the third stall, where his horse Étoile du soir, (which means Evening Star and is pronounced Ay-toy do sware), looked up at him. He was a dark gray with a black mane and tail. Draco conjured a carrot and an apple for the horse. After some time Draco said,_

"I'd better get up to the house. Don't want to keep father waiting, you know how he can be. I bet he can't wait to remind me about how I 'must be better than that filthy mudblood.' I don't care anymore, she's just better than her and anyways, she has Potter and Weasley to worry about. If she didn't help them study they would have failed." 

With that Draco began walking down the aisle toward the door when he decided to wait a little longer and give something to the other horses and the thestrals. Narcissa's was named La Rose Noire, (which means The Black Rose and is pronounced la rose new-are), and she was one of the most beautiful horses Draco had ever seen. She was charcoal black with white fetlocks and a white spot over her heart. He held out an apple and she gracefully picked it off his hand and blew a warm breath of air into his face. Draco smiled the first smile that had reached his face in months. His father's horse was called L'ombre de mort, (which means The Shadow of Death and is pronounced Lom-bra duh more.) He was a dapple gray with a pure white snip on the end of his muzzle. Draco gave him an apple as well, but he snatched the fruit out of Draco's hand and turned around to eat it. As Draco walked toward the thestrals' stall and yard he picked up some dragon hide gloves. He reached down into a magical box that contained the meat that they fed the thestrals with. He unlocked the door to enter the yard and began to walk to a platform from which he would feed Darkness and Nightrider. He had only begun to see them in the past year after he went with his father to a gathering of Death Eaters. They had tried to find the whereabouts of a witch who had eavesdropped on two Death Eaters in a pub in Germany. Bellatrix Lestrange had lured her to a mansion on the idea that she had won a thousand galleons in a contest. There Lucius hit her with the Killing Curse and she dropped dead on the spot. As the two animals finished the meat Draco look of in the distance and saw that the fountain at the center of the garden had been turned off. He wondered why, on the way back to the mansion he made a mental note to ask his mother about it. As he approached the house, now looking more ominous and foreboding as ever, he realized that the black roses would be out of bloom in a few days, he would have to cut some for his mother. He opened the large cherry door and stepped into the entrance hall.

"Most people would say home sweet home right now." thought Draco, "but this never feels like home." He threw his bag on the ground reminding himself to pick it up after he spoke with his father. He sauntered over to the study where Lucius would most likely be waiting for him. Sure enough when he entered the room he saw his father's blond hair over the high backed red armchair.

"I was wondering when you would show up, boy."

"I'm sorry father, I was at the stable an.."

"What visiting that animal of yours? Son, you need to begin thinking about what you want to do with your life. You can't spend you days talking to that animal or playing Quidditch."

"Yes father."

"I have your test scores here." He said holding up a packet of papers. "You did not get high marks in History of Magic and Arithmancy as I had hoped. And you were only second in your class."

"Of course you wouldn't see the other scores would you?" Draco mumbled under his breath.

"What was that boy?"

"Nothing father."

"Well, for your grades and your disobedience just now, you know what must be done."

"Yes, father," said Draco as his father stood and pulled a leathered handled whip down from above the fireplace. He unraveled it and flicked it close to Draco's ear, so close that it made it bleed. Draco flinched, and new knew he would be punished for that too. 

Then Draco awoke with a jolt, he was sweating and shaking convulsively. He had dreamed this dream before, mostly during the war. Harry had felt Draco move and he was slowly waking. He propped his head up on his hand and looked into Draco's eyes.

"Are you alright? Were you having another one of your nightmares?" He asked as he pulled Draco into a hug and kissed his cheek.

"Yes, it was just another one from school at Hogwarts. It's nothing. I just need to get up and walk around and get some air that's all. Then I'll be fine."

"Draco, it's not fine. If things were fine you wouldn't be having these nightmares and you wouldn't be waking up every night in a bed of sweat. I know you don't want to talk about it but I'm here for you and I always will be here. I love you too much to let you go through this alone."

"I just need to time to find myself. I'm going to go down to the garden."

"Draco, I'm coming with you. You shouldn't be alone right now."

"Thanks, Harry."


	2. A Night in the Garden

Disclaimer: I don't own either Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy; they belong to the fabulous J.K. Rowling. I do however own this situation. It contains some slash if you don't like, don't read.

Chapter Two

**A Night in the Garden**

Harry pulled on a white silk nightshirt that buttoned up the front. Draco left his shirt on the chair near the open window and pulled on a light blue robe. Harry went to the door and opened it with a creak. Draco walked through the cherry doorframe and onto the landing. From the landing he could see the far wall of the foyer, on which many portraits were hanging. He and Harry walked along the landing to a second set of stairs that led down to the first floor and out to the gardens. He told Harry to go ahead and he would meet him at the fountain. As Harry left Draco walked closer to the wall of photographs, his ancestors looked down on him with disdain.

"What?" Draco asked indignantly.

"What are you doing with him?" his father's portrait asked. "You have brought shame on the last remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin. You and the biggest enemy of the Dark Lord, together, it's repulsive." With that last comment his father left his portrait and moved to the one that was hanging above the fireplace on the first floor landing.

"I don't care!" Draco yelled to the empty foyer. "I love him and there's nothing you or anyone else can do about it. You can't hurt me anymore. You can't take your anger out on me for stupid shit that happened to you. I hate you so much and I'm glad that the Dark Lord killed you when he did. I don't think I could have gone on with you breathing down my neck, to 'become a Death Eater, Draco,' or 'follow the Dark Lord's call, son,' or 'you have to realize you destiny Draco and take your place as heir to Slytherin.' I'm glad I didn't turn out to be a sorry excuse for a human being like you." Draco screamed at the top of his lungs to no one.

He burst into tears and ripped that picture off the wall and threw it across the foyer, where it hit the black marble floor and smashed into many tiny pieces. On the floor was a scratch that ran half the length of the dimly lit room. He slammed his fist against the wall where the portrait had been.

"He would have made a magnificent Death Eater," mused one of his uncles.

"Yes, he could have been stronger than even his father ever thought," agreed one of his mother's siblings.

"Shut the hell up. I won't ever become a Death Eater. I resisted him once and I'd do it again." Draco yelled at his ancestors who were now shocked at the boy's outburst.

He wanted nothing to do with this family anymore. He needed to get away, to take a vacation, take a vacation from life.

He rushed out of the foyer, and onto the patio that led up to the gardens. The patio was made of beautifully carved, deep cherry wood and black bricks that gleamed in the moonlight. Lucius' mother had given it to the couple on their wedding day. The carvings were of ancient runes and family stories that had been passed down from generation to generation. Draco walked through the archway that led to the gardens, and thought to himself,

"Here's one to add, the life of Draco Malfoy, descendent of Salazar Slytherin and boyfriend to the Dark Lord's arch rival. That would send her rolling in her grave." 

A small smirk crept across his face. On the archway was carved Draco's great grandmother, who was a veela, seducing a man. Draco had only one-quarter veela blood running through his veins; strangely enough he never had to use his veela powers on Harry. And Harry didn't seem to care that Draco was part veela or that he had Slytherin blood running inside him. That's what Draco loving about Harry; he never held anything that Draco had done in school against him. Of course Ron Weasley still disliked him, mostly because of how Draco had treated his now fiancé Hermione Granger. They were getting married at the end of the summer and he had only been invited because Harry was Ron's best man. He bore no resentment towards Ron or his family. But, Ron still saw him as a Malfoy, Draco had been cleared of all of the charges against him, but some people never change. And that was fine with Draco, he knew that sometime Ron would warm up to him and he could wait. Draco had bought them a beautiful crystal wine glass and water goblet set for their wedding present, he knew Hermione would like it, but he wasn't so sure about Ron.

He began to make his way toward the fountain at the center of the garden when something caught his eye. There was a small gold chain glittering in the moonlight on the ground under an ivy-covered bench. He picked it up and realized there was a locket hanging on the chain. He opened it and it said,

_"To my dearest Fleur, with love, your Bill"_

It was the necklace his cousin Fleur had lost last year at the Christmas party. Fleur and Bill had been married three years earlier in a small French chapel outside her hometown. Draco was one of the groomsmen at the ceremony. The chapel was filled with pink and white roses and all of the pews were white, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He would have to take Harry to see it the next time they went to France; Harry didn't go to the service because he was on assignment with his Aurors. 

"So that's where she and Bill were most of the night," Draco chuckled to himself. He pocketed the necklace and would put it in the safe and give it to her at Ron and Hermione's wedding. He continued on past the bench to a fork in the cobblestone path. The left path led to the stables and around to the fountain and the right one led directly to the fountain. He too the right one so he wouldn't keep Harry waiting any longer that he already had. As he rounded the last bend and came within sight of the fountain he saw Harry sitting on the edge looking at a black rose in his hands. As Draco walked over, Harry looked up into the blonde boys' gray eyes.

"I picked this for you. I wanted to give you one that would be as beautiful as you, but I couldn't find one, so this will have to do." Harry said with a smile. As he gazed into Draco eyes he realized the Draco was blushing. Draco stepped closer to Harry to take the rose; Harry pulled him into a tight hug. He kissed Draco's forehead, Draco was now sitting in his lap and strands of his hair fell in front of his eyes, Harry reached up and brushed it aside. His face was now very close to Draco's, he wanted to lean in and kiss him to try to make him feel better. Before he could do anything Draco had pulled Harry closer to him and his lips brushed against Harry's. One of Harry's hands was running through Draco's silky blonde hair, his other hand was steadying the two boys so they wouldn't fall into the fountain. One of Draco's hands was entangled in Harry's messy hair and the other was on Harry's other hand. Draco leaned in more and deepened the kiss and at that moment Harry couldn't hold them up anymore. They both fell into the cool fountain water with a small splash.

A small note from the Author:

Hey All, I hoped you enjoyed chapter two. It is my favourite chapter of the ones I have written. I just wanted to bring up the point that I changed the name of the Malfoy's house from the Malfoy Mansion to Malfoy Manor. I liked the sound of mine better, sorry if it threw any of you off. 


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